Cornices

Do you notice cornices when you walk into a house?

Old cornice throughout our house

According to my site manager when trying to match our cornice and finding he couldn't get a perfect match - it is fine if they are similar, as only people like him would notice the difference.

Well I don't know about you but I also notice and so we ended up asking them to replace the whole cornice in our bedroom so it did all match.

New cornice (called three step) in our bedroom, WIR and ensuite - obviously needs painting. I actually love it as you can't tell here but makes the ceiling look higher. I am a big fan of old houses and their features so this fits with that.

Just a little Christmas red

Out in the garden this morning weeding and pruning. Who knew that Lilly Pilly tree cuttings would look so good in a Christmas display.

It is now raining so we are slowly decorating the house with red, being our favourite Christmas colour and my daughter's favourite all year round.


I have even painted my toenails red and got a red mask for an upcoming masquerade party.

Hope you are having a good weekend.

All I want for Chirstmas is a shower

A shower for Christmas in the house that is or a fantastic outdoor one, I have been having regular showers, just not at home.

We are now into our fifth week without a bathroom but we have at least had movement. The plasterer finished yesterday and the waterproofer was here today. The tiler is due on Monday, after that I am not sure but here's hoping by the end of next week we can have a shower at home. Or is that just expecting too much from our builders?

Luckily it has been warm this week which meant we have been able to wash the kids with a bucket of water out on the deck. Nothing as glamorous as these outdoor showers.

Keep out!

Sometimes you have to laugh or you might cry - it is my daughter's fifth birthday in a few weeks and yesterday we gave out her party invites at kinder.

Then last night got home from work to find plasterboard mess and dust in the driveway (the plasterer has finally been) and all over the footpath and front porch and a sign on the fence saying - Danger, construction site, unauthorised persons keep out. Now that is going to go down well with parents rocking up with their kids for my daughters birthday party. Maybe I should tell them we are going with a Bob the Builder theme, rather then the fairy / magic one we are having.

Oh the joys of living in a house you are renovating!

Christmas in the City

I find the Melbourne lane ways, arcades and streets beautiful in Spring but when you add Christmas decorations to this it is even better. I am happy to see the City of Melbourne has gone with red, silver and gold, just what I am planning for our house.

Beautiful Royal Arcade - love the stain glass window - blue and red my favourites

My father in law and his partner were visiting from Adelaide this weekend and so we spent most of it in the City - enjoying the buzz, trying out different places for coffee, visiting Santa's cave in Myer and today walking around the Botanic Gardens - perfect weather for it all.

Kids enjoying the water path in the Ian Potter children's garden

Love a vegetable garden like this, how good is the seat around it.

Out in the garden - getting ready for birthdays and Christmas

The sun is out today and it is a perfect 23 degrees, great gardening weather. Wonderful to be outside and get away from what's going on inside.


Our beautiful Canadian Maple we planted a few years ago is going well and so are our herbs and geraniums, we have had good rain fall this year but now time to mulch before the hot summer arrives. Especially as next week it is predicted we will have a week of days all over 30 degrees.

Next plan is to weed, tidy, plant flowers in pots and get ready to set up a fairy garden for my daughters birthday in December. Shhh, its a surprise!

Happy Friday and hope you have a great weekend.

Timelines?

On an episode of the English show Grand Designs I was watching the other night, Kevin McCloud stated something along the lines of - when building people want three things, a great design, to meet their timeline and budget, but unfortunately you hardly ever get all three.

So if this is the case what would you give up? I suppose if I really had a choice probably timeline and at this point that is exactly what is happening, so maybe I should be sort of happy about that?

Anyway on a bathroom that was meant to take three to four weeks we have really blown our timeline. We are now nearing end of week four and still no sign of a plasterer. We have been told we may get one this Friday but not sure as yet as they haven't chosen which one they are going with. We are meant to find out tomorrow exactly what is happening, so fingers crossed.